I am testing out the iPad a friend has loaned me for the big adventure. Apple technology is new to me.
Most of last week was spent in the house. I am changing my email account and what a hassle that is! I spent well over a day advising everyone I could think of about the change. To make it more fun, I’m also changing phone numbers. I keep running across someone else to tell and I haven’t even sent a note to all my email contacts yet – ay yi yi!
The other part of indoor time was calling and planning for bike packing, shipment, and re-construction and the timing involved. Then, silly me, I am using mileage points to get to Boston and then have to switch to a local airline to get to Bar Harbor and I didn’t give myself enough time to get my luggage off one airline and to the other. So, I’m going to have to ship all my stuff. In a way, that’s good as I’d have to ship any luggage back home if I were to haul it on the flights. Again, trying to figure out timing was an issue.
I did get to ride on Saturday with Greg and Debbie. It was a beautiful day. Still a little cool but I only needed arm warmers and a vest to get me through it. It was one of our ‘usual’ rides from Miller Ranch to Evergreen Lodge which puts us in the Stanislaus National Forest and right next door to Yosemite National Park. Not too bad, eh? So many wildflowers – number and variety! Nice to still see some snow on the high mountains. 22 miles
Sunday’s ride was the Delta Century which started in Lodi. It is one of the flattest rides I’ve ever done but that was why I chose it. We lucked out with the winds, they were mild. Just the day before, the winds had made all the news stations they were so bad. A unique part of the ride was taking a ferry across one of the waterways. Most of the roads were traffic free but the price for that is rough, rough roads.
I ended up drafting off five different men during the day. One of them, on a carbon fiber bike, started the conversation, “So, are you feeling every bump in the road with that bike?” “Probably.” My Colnago is steel which is known for not providing a smooth ride especially when compared with carbon fiber. Such islife.
My last draftor was Roberto. He actually pulled me along two different times and we had a nice conversation at the last rest stop. He would ride along about 17mph then slowly pull it up to 20mph then drop it back to 17. I liked that much better than the pulls that just stayed at one speed the whole time. If it weren’t for the help I got along the way, I’m sure my average would have been a lot less than the 14.6 I got for the day. 100 miles
Monday I met Greg for another of our ‘usual’ rides. This was around Pine Mountain Lake. Its about a 10 mile ride but includes about 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Yeah, my knees were still feeling it from Sunday so I took the climbs slow and easy. Today – rest day off the bicycle. Instead I’ll be on the back of the BMW.
Oh, I think the ipad has something wrong with it, it keeps going black while I’m still working. I only got a few sentences done before switching back to my PC to finish this post.
thecyclingdiva 